


The Bone that has no Marrow

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Biblical References, Character Study, Family, Gen, Period-Typical Racism, Vignette, emancipation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-26 23:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9928259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: "Miz Green don't much like..."





	

“Get it yourself,” Belinda had said and it was worse than anything, than Emma’s announcement she’d be working at the hospital, mixing with every sort of man and a Yankee Abolitionist supposed to guard her virtue, than when the doctor had said there was no correcting Jimmy’s club-foot, he’d always be lame, when they’d come upon Alice with her dress torn and James had started the murder her son finished, both of them sons of Cain. It was worse than when she’d lost the two babies after Alice, two little boys, perfectly formed but too early, and when she’d accepted her father’s order than she marry James Green and not dashing, romantic William Hayward, as she’d wanted. The Confederacy could fall and she wouldn’t mind. She hardly noticed Emma in the front hall, declaring she’d not sleep another night under such a roof, even without the salvation of the laudanum. Belinda had gone after she’d spoken, her head-wrap like a queen’s proud coronet, and she wouldn’t return. And Jane Culpepper Green, who’d thought her name was _Misjanie_ until she was eight years old, who had sooner thought her own right hand could fail her, the fingers contorted and monstrous, would be alone. Belinda hadn’t looked back and there was no Bible verse Jane could remember that told her how to go forth begging for her to return. She didn’t want to be Belinda’s equal and she didn’t want to seek her pardon; she wanted her back as she was and Mr. Lincoln had seen to it that would never happen. This was theft. She understood the eighth commandment now.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Emily Dickinson. I've elaborated a little for the Green family, but this is short enough, it should speak for itself.


End file.
